Date Night
by 47alwayswriting
Summary: Castle and Beckett have a night to themselves, but someone they know is in the restaurant, too. Set early season 5. One-shot.


_I've had this in my head since the beginning of season five, but only wrote it down recently. No one knows about Castle and Beckett being together yet._

_Enjoy :)_

* * *

Captain Victoria Gates laughs as her youngest daughter tries to eat the fries she ordered with her fork. She gets a glare from her daughter and pretends not to notice by looking outside. There's a couple walking down the street towards the restaurant they're in. Once they get closer she recognizes them and smiles. _It's about damn time_, she thinks.

(…)

Detective Kate Beckett and Richard Castle make their way to the restaurant after a long day at the precinct. At least they got their guy, but it was a messy case.

Now Castle is holding her hand as he opens the door for her. Kate never thought she'd be a hand-holding girl, but Castle's hand is nice and warm around hers and she has no desire to let him go. It seems that neither does Castle, because after he's taken his coat off and helped her with hers, he takes her hand again.

"Hello, table for two?" the young waitress by the door says.

"Yes, I made a reservation for Rodgers," Castle answers, using his given name to avoid drawing attention to them.

"Right this way please." The waitress gestures them to follow her to a table in a corner. Castle holds out the chair for her and she sits with a little smile playing around her lips. She's still amazed by his gallantry, even after all the years they've worked together. And after everything he's done for her it shouldn't surprise her that he wants to hold out the chair for her, but it does.

When he sits down opposite her he almost immediately takes her hand again, it's like he's afraid he'll lose her if he lets go for too long. She brushes her thumb across his knuckles and sees him relax just a bit more.

The young waitress is back, hands them their menus and retreats again quickly after they ordered a bottle of red wine, as if she doesn't want to intrude.

"You been here before?" she asks him.

"Yeah, I used to come here with Alexis when she was little. She always took the spare ribs with fries," he answers with the proud smile that always appears when Alexis is mentioned.

"Spare ribs? You really took me somewhere fancy then?" Kate teases.

"This is as fancy as you'll get if you don't want us to end up on Page Six."

"Don't worry, Castle, I like it. I never was one for those really fancy restaurants."

"Really? What about that date with the fire-fighter? What was his name? Brad? The one you left to solve your case?"

He remembers his name? Well, that shouldn't surprise her. "That was because I wanted to impress him… and you were on a date with Number 3, what was her name again? Amanda?" It shouldn't surprise her that he remembers Brad's name since she remembers the name of the girl he had been with that night. She decides to let it slide, since he'd tease her right back for remembering Amanda's name.

"Why, Detective, were you jealous?"

"Well, I might have been a little jealous, even though I would never admit it."

"I think you just did," Castle said with a sparkle in his eye.

"Shit, well, if you tell anyone I'll deny it. Besides, don't deny _you_ weren't jealous either."

"Hmm," is his only reaction. "So spare ribs?"

"Not tonight, you can watch me eat spare ribs at home if you want, but I won't embarrass myself in a restaurant. I'll go with the lasagne, what about you?"

"Hmm, good point, spare ribs aren't very good date food are they? Well, fine, I'll have a steak then." He closes his menu and the waitress appears with their wine. After Castle approves of the wine, which is delicious if his moan is anything to go by, she takes their orders and disappears again.

(…)

Gates looks at the happy couple as they laugh and drink their wine together. She smiles, they seem really happy. It's good to see them together after all that happened last spring, she didn't like it when they didn't get along, even though she hid it well.

"Mom?" her youngest daughter asks.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Who are those two people you're looking at?"

"That's a detective with her partner. They seem to be on a date."

"Partner? Are they even allowed to date?" her husband cuts in.

"Officially they are not, but it's about time that those two do."

"So you're not going to punish them?" her daughter asks.

"No, I am not, I'll just pretend I don't know." Gates replies with a smile.

"You're too sweet for this world, you know that?" her husband says with a fond smile.

"Oh, you should hear them, they call me Iron Gates."

"Well, there's got to be a lot of good in you, in order to bring the bad." Gates smiles at that, her husband is sweet. "Oh, don't smile, what if they see you!" he teases.

"They're too caught up in each other to notice me." That is true, Detective Beckett and her writer only have eyes for each other.

(…)

"How's your lasagne?" Castle asks casually. Kate knows he just wants a bite, he loves lasagne.

"Really good, thanks. How's your steak?" she smiles. The way she asks him sounds so awkward, like they're on a first date. Or in high school.

"Great," Castle grins as he takes another big bite.

Kate shakes her head and smiles.

"Want some?" he asks and holds out his fork. Kate nods and takes the offered bite. The steak is delicious and while she savours it on her tongue she gathers some of her lasagne on her own fork and offers it to him. He takes it with a huge smile and lets out a small moan.

Kate chuckles and looks at him with an expression that is full of love and adoration. They share some more bites and laugh over the silliness of the entire situation. She loves it when they are able to make up for all the time they have to pretend not to be together. And if they do by going overboard, she really couldn't care less.

"So…" Rick starts, catching Kate's attention once more. "Did you hear that Forbidden Planet is playing at the Angelica again?" She laughs.

"We should go," she says. "But you're not going to tell me that you had never seen this movie before I took you."

Rick pretends to be surprised. "Why?"

"Seriously? You were whispering dialog in my ear for almost the entire movie," she giggles.

"Yeah," Rick says, thinking of that amazing night. "You know, I think that was kind of our first date."

"No, is wasn't. You took me to dinner after our horrible dates. I think that was our first date," Kate says.

"Yeah, but I don't like the thought that our first date was at Remy's. I'd always thought I'd take you to a place that's a little classier."

"What? Like this?" she snorted.

"Point taken," he grins. "But I like the idea of that movie being our first date."

"Right, because you munching popcorn _and _candy _and_ talking through the entire movie is _so_ romantic."

"Come on! More romantic than both of our faces covered with ketchup."

"That was your fault! You put too much on our burgers."

"Well, at least now you know that you shouldn't trust me with the ketchup."

"So what _was _our first date, then? No Forbidden Planet, no Remy's."

"How about that time I got us tickets for that fundraiser when we just started?" he suggests.

"C'mon, Castle, that was for work," she argues.

"Yes, but I did get you a dress, picked you up and got you into a very classy red-carpet event," he says.

"I did like the look on your face when your mother auctioned you off," she grins and he moans.

"Right, I'd forgotten about that. Okay so no to the fundraiser, too?"

"How about the first time you invited me over for dinner at your place? It can't have been long after the fundraiser thing and it was nice."

"Dinner at my place? You had dinner at my place lots of times," he says.

"Yes, but do you remember the first time? It was late and we were starving, the place we arrested the guy was closer to your loft than the precinct or my apartment, so you invited me over for dinner. I was overwhelmed. You made pasta and we talked. I think that was the first time we just talked, without me being annoyed or angry with you."

"Wow, you never cease to amaze me, detective," Castle says lovingly. "Dinner at my place it is."

They're just trying to decide on their dessert, when her eyes are drawn to a little family who are just leaving. She catches herself and quickly looks down again, but she's already recognized the mother. She looks up again to check, maybe she's imagining things. Her throat clenches when she sees that she isn't.

"Rick, count to five and look to your right," she whispers as she keeps her eyes trained on him instead of her boss. She sees the worry in his eyes to her sudden apprehension. He looks to his right after he's counted to three and she sees his eyes widen.

"You think she saw us?" he asks quietly.

"She must have, she was facing the door," Kate says and she dares another quick glance towards Gates, who is busy getting her daughter into her jacket, but when she looks up their eyes meet. Kate feels a blush rising as Gates gives her a curt nod. She glances at Castle and back to Kate, then Kate sees a slight smile appear on the stern face and she dares to exhale again.

"Well, now we know she saw us," Kate says.

"Was it just me or did she just smile?" Rick asks a little baffled.

"No, she smiled. We'll probably hear about this tomorrow. For now, let's just enjoy the rest of the evening, I don't think there's anything we can do right now," Kate says and Castle smiles at her.

"I love you, you know that," he blurts out. He catches himself too late and locks his lips together. He watches her nervously. She just looks back with loving eyes and smiles at him.

"I know," she chirps and he allows himself to release the breath he'd been holding. "Know what else I know?"

He shakes his head.

"I love you, too."

* * *

_Thanks for reading! Xxx_


End file.
